Oh look, it’s SKIA. We’ve talked to the Liverpool-via-Norway Scandipopper a lot lately, haven’t we? First, she introduced herself last month when she dropped her tune ‘IDWTAI’ – aka ‘I Don’t Wanna Talk About It’. Then we hit her up to chat about doing puzzles and stuff during self-isolation. Now she’s back to talk us through her new seven-track EP, the delicious ‘Apricot’, which is out today (Friday, 1st May) via Heist or Hit. Take it away, SKIA.
Lost
‘Lost’ is the first track off the EP, and the first song I wrote out of the seven, it was actually written all the way back in the summer of 2016. It’s a little a capella track about losing sense of who you are and where you’re going, and how easy it can be to compare yourself to everyone else. I’ve felt this way sooo many times growing up, and still come back to that feeling sometimes. Although the song is about being lost and feeling a bit inadequate, it’s also about getting yourself together and trying to focus on the things that matter, and on YOURSELF rather than everyone else.
Selfish
I guess ‘Selfish’ is the cheeky track of the EP. It’s a pretty frank message to an ex about how I felt they were a liiiiiittle bit selfish during the breakup, and during the aftermath of the breakup, haha. But like I say in the bridge: No hard feelings, and thank god for that, holding grudges is exhausting!!
Not Anymore
‘Not Anymore’ has a bit of a different feel to it than the rest of the tracks on the EP. I wrote it with help from my good friend Meg Grooters and it was initially a pop tune with a straight dance beat in the chorus. I sent it over to my producer Emilie and she just added all these spacey, synth sounds and a laidback beat and smacked a demo together in less than 24 hours, it completely changed the song and I loved it. It’s about feeling like you’ve lost your way a bit and you’re not really sure how to move forward, and other people’s opinions and actions are distracting you from focusing on yourself and what’s best for you. I think a lot of people can recognise themselves in this, no matter what they’re doing in life, we all have days when we feel we can do absolutely anything, and then have days when we feel the opposite. I think most things work themselves out in the end though, and of course, there’s a hint of that in the bridge.
Ferris Wheel
You don’t have the ultimate EP unless there’s a big ballad on it, right?? Ferris Wheel is a track about being in a relationship that no longer feels quite right. The wheel is an analogy for a relationship where one goes up, and the other goes down, and you’re never really on the same wave-length, or share the same view, and you don’t really understand each other anymore. I think it’s quite relatable to most people who’ve been in a long-term relationship; it’s bound to go up and down!
IDWTAI
This is a minimalistic pop track about not wanting to talk or think about something. I often get flashbacks to moments of my life I’d rather forget, an uncomfortable memory that makes me cringe or something that’s hard to deal with, or sad. Even waking up the morning after a night out and thinking “why did I do that???” I had one of those moments in November last year, so I sat down and just wrote the whole song, and it immediately made me feel better.
Anyone
Anyone is a self-love anthem for everyone who goes their own way and tries to follow their dreams. It’s about finding that inner confidence and using it to go out in the world and find your place. I wrote it with my friend Silvan Rupp who also produced it! I must say it felt really good to write a song that had only positive energy, and we both wanted the contemporary pop sound. We made a video for it too with all my badass girlfriends riding bikes in wedding dresses, and I think it looks pretty cool.
Apricot
Last but not least, we have the title track, ‘Apricot’. This song came together so quickly, I just sang the whole thing into my voice-memos and spent some time getting all the right words in, and it was basically done in one afternoon. It describes the bittersweet feeling of leaving a love behind. Feeling kind of hopeful about the future, yet resentful about what’s lost which is described in the lyrics “nothing more to do, nothing more I need for you to say, I might grow into someone who might understand someday”.
